TV Review: Lost 5.1 – Because You Left & 5.2 – The Lie

We’re still steaming over who got snubbed for The Oscars. Good thing the passengers of Flight 815 are here to show who’s really Lost.

Lost, ABC, Airs Wednesdays 9/8c

Episode: “Because You Left” (Season 5, Episode 1)

Synopsis: The remaining survivors start to feel the effects caused by the island being moved, and Jack (Matthew Fox) and Ben (Michael Emerson) begin their quest to reunite the Ocean 6 — along with Locke’s (Terry O’Quinn) body — to return to the island.

When we last saw our favorite bunch of castaways,On the Island Benjamin Linus (Michael Emerson), or as we will abbreviate, OTI, was moving the island to a new location. The finale ended with “Away from the Island” Benjamin Linus, or AFTI Benji, showing Jack (Matthew Fox) Locke’s body in a casket, explaining that he and the rest of the Oceanic 6 have to get back to the island. The lesson? The real world sucks, not just on MTV.

The first episode of the season premiere surprisingly enough, was a bit easier to follow than usual as it focused on what happened to those who got off the island during the big island move, and the effects it caused for those who were left playing in the sand. Essentially when OTI Ben moved the island to a new location, he moved it not so much to new location geographically as to a new location in time.

We got to see all the important players of the story, focusing much of the time on Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies), who in the opening is shown to be present at a construction site in the distant past. How he got there is surely to be revealed as we forget other questions the show made us ask. His explanation to Sawyer (Josh Holloway) that the island is like a record that keeps skipping makes a lot of sense, particularly if you have read about Superstring Theory. Why he harps on the need to respect the rules of time travel, the most important point being that you can’t change the past, and then breaks said rules because his would-be lover gets a nosebleed is curious. Ya think maybe there will be some consequences for that? Second lesson? People in love do dumb shit.

The episode gives us a fair, if not detailed, explanation on why we have seen people in past episodes popping in and out. They weren’t ghosts, they were just the same people at a different point on the timeline. What’s great about this concept is that it creates the ability to add to the paranoia and distrust of the castaways for each other. How would you know what person is from the past or the future? In a group full of double-crossers, time travel can be a very dangerous thing.

Episode: “The Lie” (Season 5, Episode 2)

Synopsis: Ben finds that getting the Oceanic 6 back to the island isn’t quite as easy as he thought it would be. Sawyer (Josh Holloway) finds a shirt and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) nearly loses her hands on the island.

After the second episode of the season premiere, I feel like Al Pacino in The Godfather: Part III. “Just when I thought I was out of the confusion … they keep pulling me back in!” Remember when I told you that the random appearances of people all made sense, there’s no such thing as ghosts, yada yada? So much for that! We get that whole theory blown straight to hell when Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez, the actress with the eternal sneer) shows up in the real world to warn Hurley (Jorge Garcia) to stay away from the police. Sayid (Naveen Andrews), who got hit by a tranquilizer dart, then tells Hurley to stay away from Ben. If the point of Lost is to a) make us distrusting of every character on the show or b) make Hurley go insane, then they are doing a damn good job.

What separated The Lie from the first episode of season five, which was equally entertaining, was its ability to show us the difficulties Ben and Jack will have in getting everyone to return to the island. The goal was made clear in Because You Left. Now the season will focus on how the hell it will be possible to achieve said goal. For example, how is Ben going to get Sun to join the rest of The Oceanic 6 back to the island when she wants him dead? You’ll recall that Sun contacted Charles Widmore in an effort to team up and kill Ben. Could Sun maybe be actually working for Ben and just saying she wants Ben dead, effectively getting close to Widmore and foiling his plans to ruin the vacation for our star-crossed castaways?

They all better be sure they want to go back, because Ben made it pretty clear that they can’t return to the mainland once they are all there. Could Ben be trying to get the record back on track by effectively separating the survivors from Flight 815 from the real world? I don’t know. I don’t think anybody truly does, perhaps even J.J. Abrams and friends. Still, the show is called Lost. Should we expect to be hand-fed answers?

The pacing of The Lie was quick and effective. The story, as mind-boggling as it is, contained just enough explanation to give us the impression that we are starting put the pieces together, even if our guess turns out to be totally wrong. Honestly, is there anybody who has a handle on what is happening? I know this, Lost is a conspiracy theorist’s wet dream and the two episodes we saw last night were top notch.

Up Next Week: Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) searches for a woman who has answers on how to stop the island from moving, and Locke will discover the identity of the person attacking the castaways.

Adam Sweeney has a background in journalism, having spent 4 years on the Lone Star Lutheran as an Opinions and Arts & Entertainment columnist. He graduated in May 2008 from Texas Lutheran University with a Dramatic Media degree and hopes to become a filmmaker/journalist/radio host/actor extraordinaire. He also writes film and play scripts and figures if Good Luck Chuck can make it to the big screen then why can't he? He can also be read at TalkHoops.net as a feature writer on all things basketball, and his personal blog covers everything from politics to why Keira Knightley is looking more like Jack Skellington every day. (www.myspace.com/theadamlee)

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